Jaina Metaphysics
There are two important concepts in Jaina metaphysics which are perplexing to tudents of Jainism, the astikaa and the dravya. the term astikaa is a compound name made up of asti and kaya which respectively mean existing and extensive magnitude; astikaya therefore means a eal that has extensive magnitude. The other term dravya means the real that is fluent or changing. We shall try to explain these tow concepts in detail.
The astikayas are five in number, Jiva (soul), pudgala (matter), dhrma (principle of motion), adharma (principle of rest) and akasa (space). These five build up the cosmos. Space and matter are distinctly extended release. Dharma and adharma are indirectly related to space. Their operation is in space and is limited by lokakasa. Thus they ma also be considered as related to space. lastly, life is generally associated with body, the organic body is constituted by pudgala or matter. Jiva is operative in and conditioned by such a physical medium. in a was therefore Jiva also is related to space. These five existences which have spatiality either directly or indirectly are the five astikayas. these are the constituent elements of the universe or the world.
Kala
Kala or time, though not an element of the physical universe, may be mentioned here. Since change and motion are admitted to be real, time also must be considered real. The real or absolute time as contrasted with the relative time is constituted by simple element known as kalanus or instants. In stance points and atoms are the characteristic conceptions of Jaina thought and in this respect it has a wonderful corroboration from the field of modern mathematics.
The Jaina thinkers in distinguishing time from the five astikayas made use of an important idea. Astikaya is spatiality or extensive magnitude. This extensive magnitude is denoted by a technical name. Tiryak ,pracaya or horizontal extension.
When the simple elements, say, the points are so arranged in a series where each term is an item also in another series we must have the two-dimensional series which will correspond to surface or extension. Wherever there is such a tiryak-pracaya we have astikaya. But time or kala has only urdhva-pracaya. The elements are in a forward direction. The series is mono -dimensional or linear order. Therefore kala has no extension either directly or indirectly. Hence it is not an astikaya. Though it is not an astikaya it is distinctly real entity which accounts for changes in other things.
Such are characteristics of real time. This should not be confounded with Vyavaharra kala or relative time which is measured by some conventional units of either long or shorts duration. These conventional distinctions would have no meaning if they are not co-ordinated in single real time series.
The Six Dravyas
The term dravya denotes any existence which has the important characteristic of persistence through change. Jaina conception of reality excludes both a permanent and unchanging real of the permenidian type and also the mere eternal flux of Haraclites. An unchanging permanent and mere change without substratum are unreal or impossible abstractions. Jaina system admits only the dynamic reality or dravaya. Dravya then is that which has a permanent substantiality which manifests through change of appearing and disappearing. Utpada- origin, vyaya-decay and dhrauvya--- permanency form the triple nature of the Real. To emphasizes the underlying identity alone would end in Vedanitc conception of this Real as Brahman. To exphasise the change alone would result in the ksanika- vada of the Buddhist, the reality as a stream of discrete and momentary elements. The Concept of darvya reconciles both these aspects and combines them into an organic unity. It is an identity expressing through difference, a permanency contenting through change. It corresponds to the modern conception of organic development rather in its Hegelian aspect. It has duration; it is movement; it is the Elan Vital. The five asitikayas and kala or time six dravyas or the real existences.
Dravya, Guna and Paryaya
Or Substance, Qualities and Modes
Having introduced the Jaina concept of the real let us examin the distinctions in the realm of the real. The dynamic substance or dravya is always associated with certain intrinsic and inalienable qualities called gunas. Thus the yellow colour, malleability , etc; will be the qualities or guna of the dravya gold. The Dravyas with its inalienable qualities must exist in some state or form. This is its mode of existence or paryaya. This mode or paryaya is subject to change. It may be destroyed and a new mode may appear. But this creation and destruction are relevant only to paryayas or modes and not to Dravyas, the constitutive substance. That can neither be destroyed nor created. That is eternal.
The approximate parallel conceptions in the western thought will be Spinoz`s substance, qualities and modes. Of course, for Spinoza, there was only one substance whereas here we have six distinct substances or dravyas . The term attribute is used in a technical sense by Spinoza whereas it means merely the qualities in Jaina Metaphysics. Each dravya or the real has its own appropriate. Matter has the sense qualities of touch, taste, etc; soul has cetana consciousness; and so with the others dravyas. What is the relation between dravya and guna the reals and their qualities? This is an important problem even in modern metaphysics. There have been two distinct answers proposed by philosophers One answers always emphases the permanent basis as the real and the other as the changing qualities. The former condemns change as mere appearance or maya, whereas the latter condemns the permanent substance as a mere figment of imagination. The former school generally ends in agnosticism and maintains that the real is unknown and unknowable. The latter generally ends in scepticism and sweeps always in a flood of doubt the fundamental concepts of life and world, of morality and religion. In India we have Advaita Vedanta as an example of the former and Buddhism, of the latter. In the west the philosophers like Locke and kant may be mentioned as representatives of the former school and Hume may be taken as a type of the latter.
The problem once again taken by Bradley who after an acute analysis condemns it to be insoluble. Hences according to his own dialectic the thing with its qualities is self-contradictory and therefore an appearance .this is a conclusion which goes clean against science and common sense. Thing-hood is not after all a self-contradictory notion. For the Jainas it is a fundamental concept. The thing or Dravya as it is a dynamic entity is always flowing. It has no existence apart from its qualities which in their turn are not really distinct from the dravya. The thing-in itself apart from all the qualities is merely an empty abstraction. The qualities themselves are not merely monentatry fleeting sensations. The thing exists in and through its qualities and the qualities related and organised constitute the thing. The difference between the two is only a difference of reference and not a difference of existence; in the technical language of Jaina metaphysics, the anyatva between dravya and guna is only vyapade- matra. They do not have pradesa prthaktva. Hence they are one in reality though having distinct nomenclature and reference.
Paryaya is another technical term demanding careful understanding. Paryay means mode of existence. This again is viewed from two different aspects, artha-paryaya and vyanjana- paryaya.we have already mentioned that dravya is but an entity that is continually changing. This triple nature of reality that is permanency through births and deaths, through creation and destruction gives to dravya a characteristic mode of existence every moment. This cotinuous flow of the real is parallel to the continuous flow of the duration of time. This intrinsic change of dravya is known as artha-paryay. All the six dravyas have this artha-paryaya . what is vyanajana paryaya has a pretty fixed duration of existence. Besides the molecular aggregation and disintegration that take place every moment in a physical object the object may have a particular mode of existence as a pot, for example for a certain duration of time. This paryaya of pot is vyanjana- paryaya of pudgala. Similarly for Jiva. The continuous change that takes place in consciousness is Jivas artha- paryaya. Its existence as a particular organism as a man or a deva with determinate age is the vyanjana-paryaya of Jivas and pudgala have got only artha-paryayas alone. The reals are thus exhausted by the six dravyas with their respective gunas and paryayas.
Since these dravyas are reals they have satta or astitva or existence as there common characteristic. From this point of view of satta, all the deavyas may be brought under one class. Though from the class-point of view all the dravyas are one. Still the satta, their common characteristic should bot be abstracted and postulated as the unitary substance of which the other dravyas may be taken as paryayas. ekanta view is condemned as unwarranted and erroneous. The six dravyas, in spite of their common characteristic of satta, are fundamental and irreducible from one to another.
One more point and we may leave this topic. A thing in concrete world is therefore a paryaya of anyone of the dravyas. It is also otherwise called artha. An artha. Or a thing is a corporate unity oaf an infinite number of qualities, just as the cosmos is a system of infinite number of arthas. The one is extensive and the other is intensive; but both are infinite wholes: According to Jaina philosophy therefore, we require an infinite thought to apprehend them completely. He who cannot know a thing completely cannot know the world completely and conversely he who cannot know the world completely cannot know even a single thing really and completely. This particular attitude of the Jania thinkers reminds us of Tennyson`s lines in, `A flower in the crannied wall I I could know the root and all I could know what God and man is."
Having spoken of the dravyas general , let us try to explain Jiva-dravya a little more in detail.
Jaina Biology
Perhaps it is inaccurate to speak of biology in the system before us. The science of biology as such is peculiar to modern age; hence we are not quite justified in expecting such a scientific conception in a work of pre-Christian era and which is perhaps of the same age as of Plato and Aristotle. Naturally therefore, the ideas about the organic world are curiously intermixed with various mythic and fantastic conception relating to being of hell and savage or heaven. Eliminating all these as irrelevant we still have considerable material to enable us to have an insight into the ancient ideas about life and living beings.
One important conception that would strike the reader in the very beginning is the organic unity of the plant and the animal world. Vegetable kingdom is distinctly organic. Its nature was accurately observed and carefully described. The whole plant world is included in the class of organisms having one sense, i.e. the sense of contact. Then the world of animals and insects is classified according to the same principle of sense organs. The animal world beginning with such insects as earthworm and ending with man is brought under four main group, organisms, with two three four and five senses.
Pranas
Associated with organisms there is the concept of pranas or the essential characteristics of living beings . these are mainly four, bala- prana, indriya ayuh- prana. Every organism implies certain capacity of spontaneous activity. This capacity for action is bala-prana or life potency. Every organism must possess some kind of sense awareness. This implies the possession of a sense organ and the capacity to apprehend the environment through that sense. The number of sense organs is different according to stages of organic development. Next is ayuh-prana or duration of life. Every living organism has a limited duration of life. This organic capacity to persist through a certain duration is ayuh-prana. And lastly there comes respiration. There is no organism without this prana of ucchavasa- nihsvasa. These four main pranas are the
essential attributes of organic beings.
Different kinds of Births
One other interesting point is the enumeration of the different means of birth of organisms. Young ones may be produced from garbha. These are garbhajas, young ones produced from the womb. Then the andajas. The young one produced from egg. Thirdly there is sammurchana or spontaneous generation. This refers to minute organisms. And lastly, they speak of aupapadikasi. I the case of devas and narakas. The last one of course we may treat as beyond scientific pale. The recognition of spontaneous generation is a point deserving special emphasis.
Microscopic Beings
Another fact deserving notice is the early recognition of the existence of microscopic organisms. These are called suksma ekendriya jivas or microscopic organisms having only one sense. These are said to fill the earth, air water and fire. The possibility of microscopic organisms in fire seems a little too fantastic.(for the verification of this one must look to the result of further scientific investigation) But in the case of the other three we need have no hesitation as they are fully established by modern science.
In this connection it is necessary to point out that H. Jacob's conjecture that Jainism is very ancient though historically true rests on an unwarranted assumption as to this jiva- nikaya. He interprets (vide his translation of Tattvarthadhigama) these jivas in earth, air water and fire in such a way as to suggest that Jainism is or was once at least, a mind of Indian fetishism which believed in the souls of earth, air, etc. Then what is purpose of calling these suksma ekendriya Jivas? What is the meaning of this distinction between Jiva and ajiva, cetana and acetana?